BOTANY WORKSHOP INFORMATION: (Registration required & limited to 12 participants - See below)This special botany workshop, sponsored by the Isle Royale & Keweenaw Parks Association (IRKPA), and taught by botanist Janet Marr, is open to anyone with beginning/intermediate knowledge of plant identification and who is interested in learning to identify the early summer native flora of this species-rich Lake Superior island. Workshop participants will spend four days on Isle Royale learning native plant species, using such tools as a dichotomous key and hand lens to identify plants. Other topics will include discussion of island plant communities, rare species, ecology, and invasive species. Workshop activities will take place mostly outdoors. Optional evening sessions will also be offered to review plants learned earlier. Field trips will include Tobin Harbor, Scoville Point, and Raspberry Island, places that are all located in the vicinity of Rock Harbor.

Workshop attendees will meet in Houghton, Michigan, on Monday (14 June) afternoon and travel from Houghton to Rock Harbor (on Isle Royale) on the Ranger III boat on Tuesday (15 June). Participants will return to Houghton on the Ranger III on Saturday (19 June).

REQUIREMENTS: Workshop participants should be able to hike up to 7 miles in one day with a daypack on rocky, sometimes steep, trails and bedrock, sometimes slippery, shoreline.

INSTRUCTOR: Botanist Janet Marr, the workshop instructor, has had many years of experience studying plants across Michiganís Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale. Janet taught the 2007 - 2009 Isle Royale botany workshops as well as many botany and aquatic plant workshops in Michiganís Keweenaw Peninsula. She is co-author of the Isle Royale Natural History Association's Island Life, an Isle Royale Nature Guide.

ENROLLMENT IS LIMITED TO 12 PARTICIPANTS. Last yearís botany workshop filled up very quickly so sign up soon! Contact Jill Burkland at 906-482-7860 or jburkland@irnha.org for more information or to register for the workshop. PARTICIPANTS NEED TO PRE-REGISTER AND SEND A $100 DEPOSIT TO BE RECEIVED BY 1 MAY 2010 to Isle Royale & Keweenaw Parks Association, Attn: Jill Burkland, 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton, MI 49931 in order to attend this workshop. Botany workshop fee: $650 ($625 for IRKPA members).

The fee for the botany workshop covers instruction, camping, meals on the island, hand lens, notebook, Slavick/Jankeís Flora of Isle Royale, and transportation to and from the island on the Ranger III. Participants may travel from Grand Portage, Minnesota, on the Voyager at their own expense. See http://www.isleroyaleboats.com/ for Voyager info.

LODGING/CAMPING: Participants may camp for free at a Rock Harbor group site for the four nights on the island. You may also stay in the Rock Harbor Lodge or Housekeeping units at your own expense (consider sharing a room with another participant or friend to reduce your lodging cost). For information about lodging (at Rock Harbor Lodge or Housekeeping units), boat rentals, etc., please see: http://www.isleroyaleresort.com/ or call 866-644-2003 (winter season) or 906-337-4993 (summer season).